44 Minutes
by Blue Deity
Summary: A hostage situation goes bad, Maya helplessly watches not knowing if Phoenix is alive or dead.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Ace Attorney Series or any of its characters, all elements belong to Capcom.

**Notes:** First post of 2011. A fic inspired by the Megadeth song of the same name, not a songfic.

_**44 Minutes**_

Maya woke up later than usual that morning, close on 11:30.

"Hey Nick, you here?" She called when she walked out into the hall from her bedroom. "Niiick." She tapped on the door to the bathroom, but there wasn't any answer. "Hmm, guess he's not in there." She then went down the hall to his bedroom and opened it up, the usual mess was there, but not the usual muddle-headed lawyer that made it. "Where is he?" She huffed. "He promised me we'd watch movies together today." Maya stepped into the living room, still no Nick, and eventually into the kitchen, where she found a note scribbled in Nick's handwriting stuck to the fridge with one or Pearly's fridge magnets.

"Hey, Maya.

Sorry I'm not there, but out last client showed up about nine o'clock with our payment, you and Pearls were still asleep so I thought I'd just go ahead and put it in the bank. Just in time to, the rent in the apartment's past due. I left twenty bucks on the kitchen counter, so order a pizza for lunch okay, whatever you guys want on it, I shouldn't be gone too long. See you in a little while

Nick'

"Ahh man." Maya muttered in disappointed. "Who knows how long he's gonna be. He's already been gone for over two hours" She huffed. Just then, Maya heard the sound of her room door opening and tiny footsteps tracking down the hall.

"Morning Mystic Maya." Pearly greeted, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and holding on to her teddy bear. "Hey, where's Mr. Nick?" She asked, "He's not in his room." Maya sighed.

"At the bank, doing old guy stuff." She shrugged, "He left some money for us to order a pizza, that sound good?"

"Oh yes Mystic Maya, just cheese on my part okay?" Pearly answered, Maya nodded as Pearl crawled up on the couch and grabbing the tv remote. "Can I watch Kid's Masterpiece Theatre please?" Maya smiled to herself.

"You don't have to ask you know"." She said as she picked up the phone and called the pizza place. All Maya had to do was say her name and they knew what she wanted: large one half just cheese and one half with extra hamburger meat. 45 minutes until it got there, like usual. Little Pearly didn't ask for much from her or Nick, but ever since she ate that first pizza after they left the circus that one time, she's been asking for one every time she came into the city. It was cute as far as Maya was concerned, and heck, what was twenty bucks to make her little cousin happy.

"Ohh." Maya heard Pearly whine after she hung up the receiver.

"What's wrong Pearly."

"Kid's Masterpiece Theatre's not on. There's just some dumb cop show." The little Fey answered, tossing the remote unto the couch with disgust.

"That's weird." Maya glanced at the screen, Pearly was wrong, it wasn't a cop show, it was the news, something big was going down. There was a reporter crouched behind a car door with his camera crew, he looked frightened and there sounded like there was a commotion around him. Maya read the banner at the bottom of the screen

'Hostage Crisis at Pacific City Bank." Maya's heart fell and a cold sweat formed on her forehead.

"Th-that's our bank!" She exclaimed.

"My-Mystic M-Maya?" Pearly stammered. "Wh-what's going on. I-Is something wrong?"

"C-Could you turn up the tv?" Maya asked weakly.

"Oh, okay."

"The police are being quite tight lipped as to how this incident started." The reporter began, looking into the camera. "The only thing we do know is that several heavily armed men have sealed themselves inside the building after they were trapped because of the quick response of the police force when they received the alarm from the attempted bank robbery. Most of the people inside managed to escape in the confusion but we can confirm that there are at least thirty bank employees being held hostage as well as an unknown number of customers." The cameraman panned around, there were many heavily armed police officers around, then Maya saw him, Gumshoe, he was there too with his unit. Maya grabbed her cellphone from the table, and desperately started dialling the good natured detective's number. After several _very _long rings that seemed like they matched up perfectly with the pounding of her heart, the detective answered the phone.

"Hey pal." He answered. "I don't have time to talk right..."

"Gumshoe! I-Is Nick there anywhere!" She blurted, tears coming from her eyes. "You know, with the guys that got out?"

"Huh?" Gumshoe grunted.

"My-Mystic Maya?" Pearly gasped "I-Is Mr. Nick..?"

"N-No, I-I didn't see Mr. Wright anywhere? D-did he come down here today?"

"Yeah." Maya answered nodding. "H-He was gone before I got up this morning." She took a deep breath to try and stop her crying. "Wh-what' going on?" She heard Gumshoe sigh on the other end.

"O-Okay, I'll level with you pal. There's four perps, they all got some heavy duty guns, fully automatic AR-33's, tear right through a suit of riot armour." Gumshoe explained sadly. "We think they were after an armoured car that was supposed to be showing up this morning with a big gold shipment, but it got delayed. These guys probably work for some bigshot crime boss, probably where they got the guns, I'd bet that when the car didn't show up they got scared of what would happen to 'em if they went back to their boss empty-handed so they decided to go after the bank."

"I-Is it bad Gumshoe?" Maya croaked. Another sigh.

"If I'm right, these guys are really scared, and they don't have nothin' to lose, yeah this is really bad." Maya let out a little sound from her throat when her heart sank to her stomach. "B-but don't worry okay, we got a great hostage negotiator comin' in, best in the state, we'll get everyone out, no prob, I promise, okay?"

"O-Okay." Maya said lowly and hung up the phone. In a daze, Maya slumped back down next to Pearly, who was looking up at her with the same fear in her eyes Maya was sure in her own.

"Mystic Maya? I-Is Mr. Nick in trouble?" Maya didn't say anything, just nodded and wrapped her arms around her small cousin.

* * *

A few minutes later the news had switched back from the scene to the newsroom. The two anchors were talking about the armoured car, repeating everything Gumshoe had told Maya on the phone, leaving out the whole thing about em probably being really scared and capable of doing anything. Pearly was crying, clutching unto her teddy bear for dear life. Maya was transfixed on the TV screen, for a different reason than usual. She was listening to everything they were saying, but at the same time she wasn't, she was just thinking about Nick, probably on the floor with some crook with a big gun lording it over him, HIM the best guy there ever was and some scumbag can hurt him just because of a gun, didn't seem right. She was afraid for him, afraid he could die...what would happen then?

"Don't think that way Maya!" She shouted at herself. "Y-You heard Gumshoe, everything'll be okay." Then she turned to Pearly and told her the exact same thing, everything'll be okay, it's got to be.

After a couple of minutes, a new piece of paper was placed in front of the news anchor.

"Breaking news." He started, Maya snapped back into full attention and leaned forward on the couch, she clutched her magatama for comfort, why was this guy taking so long to get on with what he's got to say. "We can now confirm that all of the hostages are indeed still alive, however negotiations have reached a standstill as the demands made by the gunmen have proven to be next to impossible to acquire." Maya brightened up for a second, before she sank back down, but at least he she knew he was still alive. The anchor continued, "The situation is becoming more and more tense with each passing moment." Just then Maya's phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hiya pal, didja hear about the negotiations."

"Y-yeah." Maya stammered. "It's not going too good, what is it they want?" Maya demanded.

"Th-that's the weird thing, they got no demands. I was right I think, these guys are so afraid of their boss that they don't know what they're doin'. We gotta be real careful here, they're like caged animals, we don't know what they're capable of. I hear that they're positioning sniper's in the roofs of the building around the banks."

"What does that mean?"

"Means the shit's soon gonna hit the fan, I think."

"Y-You promised me that Nick would be okay?" Maya shrieked.

"He will be!" Gumshoe roared back. "I-I'm sorry pal." He apologised quickly. "We're all kinda on edge down here. I'll let you know when something happens."

Several more minutes later, the news feed had returned to the scene outside the bank. It was still a standstill.

"Mystic Maya, a-are the bad guys gonna-gonna shoot Mr. Nick?" Pearly asked her voice cracking, she was a smart kid, of course she had it all figured out.

"Of course not Pearly." She said with a fake smile. "If they shoot Nick, then the cops'll shoot them, besides, Nick's too strong to let people like that hurt him." Maya knew she was trying to convince herself as much as Pearly, but the fact was, she could kinda see it, Nick just strolling outta the bank with, the other hostages all following after him, and the crooks beat up, all four of em over his big, square shoulders. She really wished that would happen, but it wasn't going to, Nick was a hero, but he wasn't a _super_hero.

"Hey, Mystic Maya, I just got an idea." Pearly piped up.

"Y-yeah?"

"Why don't you call Mr. Nick?" She suggested.

"Huh?"

"M-Maybe he never got to the bank or something, maybe-maybe he's not even there." Maya's heart jumped up into her throat.

"G-Good idea Pearly!" She squealed, grabbing her phone again. "I hope you're right." Just as she started dialling though, her phone started vibrating, it was a text message from Nick.

'Maya, listen, I'm being held hostage at the bank, I'm okay so don't worry about me, I don't know when I'll get out of here, but I'm going to be alright.' As soon as she read it, she heard a the sound of gunfire from the TV.

"We have shots fired!" The reporter shouted. The scene quickly turned into chaos, with policemen and women running around and the chief trying to restore order. Panicking and barely able to breath, Maya dialled Nick's number.

"Where sorry, but the customer you have dialled is either outside the service area, or they have their phone turned off, please try again later."

"O-Oh no!" Maya gasped. A second later Gumshoe called her back.

"Dammit, they just started opening fire!" He shouted, "We were just goin' to send in the SWAT team!"

"I-I just got a text message from Nick!" Maya croaked, the tears forming in her eyes again. "I-I think they shot him!"

"What! He-he tried to contact you? Idiot!"

"Wh-what?"

"You think about it pal." He started. "What would _you _do if you were one of those guys and _you_ saw some hostage on his cell phone?" As Gumshoe was yelling, Maya heard another voice.

"Take the shot!"

"Oh shi-!" Gumshoe cursed. "Damn it Mr. Wright." Then there was the sound of more gunshots, the sounds of automatic fire, and a lot of people screaming.

* * *

"All four suspects have been confirmed shot dead Killed by sniper fire." The reporter said sombrely after the camera cut back to the scene after the firefight had ended. "Several officers received bullet wounds, some have been carried to the hospital, two in critical condition. All hostages have also been transported to the nearest hospital go be treated for their wounds, we can confirm two casualties."

Maya jumped up from the couch and grabbed Pearly's hand.

"C'mon Pearly, we gotta get down to that hospital." Pearly was all for it as they dashed out of the apartment, bumping into the pizza guy as they ran into the hall.

"You order a pizza?" He asked.

"Sorry, more important stuff to worry about right now." She shouted over her shoulder.

* * *

It felt like they were on the bus for hours until they finally got to the hospital. The hospital was in a mess, trying to help all the people injured at the bank. Eventually, they got a nurse to show them to where Nick was, she jumped at him and threw her arms around her neck as soon as she saw him, so relieved he was alive. Pearly did the same.

"Ow, ow, stop it guys, that hurts!" In her excitement, Maya hadn't seen the patch of gauze on his shoulder, where he had gotten shot.

"OhmyGod Nick!" She blurted in one breath. "Whe-when you-when you're phone went dead, I thought they killed you!" She was crying again. "Don't do that to me ever again!" She shrieked, burying her head in his chest.

"Y-yeah." Nick replied. "G-Gumshoe really let me have it because of that." He said absent mindedly. "One of the guy's caught me on the phone, so he shot it, the thing got tore up by that assault rifle.

"He didn't? A-After everything you've been through today I'll-I'll..." She balled her fists together.

"That's okay Maya, he's right."

"Huh?"

"Hey listen Maya, can you and Pearls leave me alone for a bit?" He asked her with a _very _tired looking smile.

"O-Okay Nick." She stammered, taking Pearly by the hand she led her out into the hallway, Maya looked back to see him just staring out the window, his hand to his bullet wound, lost in his own world, and she could feel it, feel the weight that was on him now, before she turned away, she whispered. "_You_ didn't shoot anyone Nick."

**END**


End file.
